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British Nationality

Bell Ribeiro-Addy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of potential merits of implementing recommendation 3 of the House of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Participation’s 2018 report in relation to a broad public debate on the shared values of British citizenship.

Kevin Foster: Our society is based on a set of shared values which include, but are not limited to, democracy, the rule of law, liberty, tolerance and respect for others. MHCLG’s Integrated Communities Strategy consulted on the vision of building strong integrated communities where people – whatever their background – can live, work, learn and socialise together, based on shared rights, responsibilities and opportunities.

Department of Health and Social Care

Coronavirus: Screening

Dr Lisa Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to deliver widespread testing of NHS staff and patients; and whether he has set a target date for that delivery.

Ms Nadine Dorries: In March we began swab testing National Health Service patients and staff for COVID-19. Since then we have continuously expanded testing capacity, in line with our national testing strategy to control the virus and save lives.We are now testing people who need elective surgery before being admitted, on top of testing patients already in hospital.NHS staff are prioritised for testing should they exhibit symptoms. In line with Chief Medical Officer guidance, asymptomatic staff are tested in situations where there was an untoward incident, outbreak, or high prevalence of the virus. Asymptomatic staff are also being periodically tested as part of Public Health England’s SIREN study.

Health Services: Coronavirus

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the (a) findings of the pilot studies on covid-19 testing for asymptomatic healthcare staff and (b) location of the 16 pilot sites.

Ms Nadine Dorries: The information from these studies has been shared with the National Health Service trusts involved to inform their approach to testing but is not being considered for wider publication at this time.NHS England has published guidance on when asymptomatic testing might be appropriate, including where an incident has taken place, an outbreak or where high prevalence has been established.We are of course keeping all advice under review and continue to be guided by the latest clinical and scientific evidence on the testing of NHS staff.

Coronavirus: Children

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when covid-19 testing will be made available to all children under the age of five who have symptoms of covid-19.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Since 22 July, anyone with symptoms can ask for a test through the National Health Service website, whatever their age. Testing was extended to include symptomatic children under the age of five in England and Wales on 28 May, followed by Northern Ireland on 16 July and Scotland on 22 July.

British Nationals Abroad: Coronavirus

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of asking UK nationals to be tested for covid-19 before undertaking international travel.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Holding answer received on 22 June 2020



Current clinical advice is that testing of individuals without symptoms should be used where clinically appropriate, predominantly for outbreak investigation and infection control. We continue to use the latest science and clinical advice to inform our approach. Our primary focus is symptomatic people to ensure that everyone who needs a test can get one. On that basis, we are not currently using our testing capacity to provide asymptomatic testing to support exit health monitoring for persons departing the United Kingdom for international travel.The Foreign and Commonwealth Office currently advises British nationals against all but essential international travel, with the exemption of a number of countries and territories which have been assessed as no longer presenting an unacceptably high risk to British people travelling abroad. The list of exempted destinations is under constant review.

Coronavirus: Screening

Neil Coyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has plans to make funding available to clinical research organisations who are able to offer free covid-19 tests to their local community.

Ms Nadine Dorries: Holding answer received on 23 June 2020



Anyone in the United Kingdom who has COVID-19 symptoms can get a free test from NHS Test and Trace. The Government is working in partnership with industry, academia, the National Health Service and many others to double our testing capacity, protect local communities and save lives.Anyone who needs a COVID-19 test can get one at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/get-coronavirus-test

Members: Correspondence

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will respond to the letter of the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston of 1 May 2020 reference ZA30070.

Ms Nadine Dorries: I replied to the hon. Member’s letter on 21 August 2020.

Coronavirus: Screening

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to publish statistics on the number of covid-19 home testing kits that were available on each day since the NHS service was launched.

Ms Nadine Dorries: We have created a home testing programme that provides access to testing to anyone, anywhere in the United Kingdom. As such over 1.5 million people have been able to access testing in the privacy of their own homes.We have grown our capability so that within two weeks of establishing the programme we went from dispatching test kits to under 500 people to over 19,000. The programme now has the capacity to deliver approximately 155,000 tests a week.The number of home test kits processed each week since the launch of NHS Test and Trace (28 May 2020) is published at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-test-and-trace-statistics-england-16-july-to-22-july-2020